Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, are becoming increasingly popular. One common feature on such devices is a camera for the capturing of still images or video images. Many devices now have more than one camera, with one mounted on the “front” of the mobile device (e.g., the side with the primary display screen), and a second mounted on the “back” of the mobile device. The primary application for the “back” camera is to record video or images of people, places, or events to which the user of the mobile device is an audience (e.g., family gatherings, concerts, sporting events, landscapes and scenes of nature, or the like). The primary application for the “front” camera is to record video or images of the user or a group of individuals around the user, for example, for a self-portrait or during a video call.
Although mobile device cameras are popular for capturing video or still images, their usefulness is limited by their ability to capture quality images, especially when there is low or no ambient light. Many smartphone manufacturers have added flash devices as a component of the smartphone. These flash devices artificially illuminate the environment or user, but the output of such mobile device-embedded flash devices may be inadequate to illuminate certain scenes. Some manufacturers have developed attachable external illumination or flash devices, which provide increased illumination beyond that of the “internal” mobile device flash device. These devices use bright white light emitting diodes (LEDS), and plug into the 3.5 mm audio in/out port to supply power thereto.